jersey city bloods leader sentenced to more than 15 years
in prison for racketeering conspiracy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 12, 2012

NEWARK, N.J. – A leader in the Jersey City Fruit Town and Brick City Brims set of the Bloods street gang who admitted conspiring to murder a rival gang member and to distribute narcotics was sentenced today to 184 months in prison, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Saleen Neal, 31, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Stanley R. Chesler in Newark to one count of a Second Superseding Indictment, which charged him with conspiracy to violate the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Judge Chesler imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

Neal, a ranking member of the Fruit Town and Brick City Brims set of the Bloods, admitted that he conspired in February and March 2009 to murder a fellow member of the set, identified in court documents as “A.R.” Neal admitted that he declared A.R. to be “food” – meaning he was to be killed by fellow Bloods members – because he believed that A.R. violated Bloods rules by giving a statement to law enforcement regarding the death of a fellow gang member who was killed in Jersey City.

Neal also admitted that he conspired with another individual in early 2009 to sell dozens of bricks of heroin to a confidential informant.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Chesler sentenced Neal to three years supervised release.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward – which includes members from the Newark Police Department, East Orange Police Department, Essex County Department of Corrections, Hudson County Sheriff's Office, Jersey City Police Department, the New Jersey Division of Parole, and the Paterson Police Department – along with the New Jersey Department of Corrections, Special Investigations Division, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

He also thanked Special Operations Division’s National Gang Targeting, Enforcement and Coordination Center, under the direction of Director John Sieder, for their important roles.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Melissa L. Jampol, Lisa Colone, and Robert Frazer of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.